"One Of Us": The Conradian Characters Under Moral Solicitude

"One of us"appears in Joseph Conrad's Lord Jim, Nostromo and Under Western Eyes, and is an important phrase to understand Conrad's moral solicitude towards his characters in these three novels. This thesis attempts to show Conrad's sympathy towards his characters whom he regards as"one of us". It centers on three aspects– professional code and instinct of self-preservation, ideal and money, individual and others.Chapter 1 discusses man's frailty when isolated in confrontation with the powerful and indifferent nature, concerning the relation between code of conduct and instinct in Lord Jim. This chapter concentrates on Jim's seaman code and instinct of self-preservation and the aspects Conrad makes Jim sympathetic through his narrators.Chapter 2 discloses the erosive influence of material interest on people's moral ideals in Nostromo. This chapter shows how Gould's and Nostromo's moral ideals are set up and then lost in their material pursuit. Gould's alienation and Nostromo's final corruption show man's vulnerability.Chapter 3 analyzes man's moral conflict between self and others in Under Western Eyes. This chapter discusses Razumov's moral isolation which collects Conrad's moral solicitude and Razumov's moral redemption which solves Razumov's moral dilemma of self and others.Jim, Nostromo and Razumov are Conradian characters under moral dilemmas, whose choices in dilemmas can not be judged by simple rules of right or wrong. These novels deeply explore the complexity of human nature and different kinds of challenges and tests that moral values encounter in reality and show Conrad's profound moral solicitude to his characters.